Known retainers for releasable attachment of elongate elements such as rails and the like to a support comprise a supporting shoe mountable on the support, in one case having two parallel side walls projecting up from a base, a retaining rail in the shoe, which is insertable between the side walls of the supporting shoe as well as locable into an undercut region of the supporting shoe.
A first means for attaching and holding the retaining rail in the supporting shoe is also provided. This retaining rail has two parallel flanges contact the inside of the supporting shoe, these parallel flanges having adjacent their free edges directed inwardly, protruding members, such as cams, pins, or the like, by which the insertable elongate element is held in the retaining rail.
Known grids for the construction of floor mats or foot scrapers comprise a plurality of supporting shoes, supporting bars, or the like having undercut grooves in their longitudinal directions oriented with their longitudinal axes parallel to each other, holding elements for assembling the supporting shoes, channels or the like with clearance from each other, and in whose supporting shoes, bars, or the like; flexible insertable strips, rails, or the like to be mounted therein, for example insertable strips or rails comprising felt, brush material, rubber, or having a textile top portion; are placed.
The insertable strips or rails to be mounted are held in thin walled retaining rails comprising two lateral flanges each and a strip uniting them. These thin walled retaining rails are formed from a compressible hard material, for example a hard plastic material. The retaining rails with the insertable strips, rails, or the like are locked into the supporting shoes, bars or the like.
While holding elements with undercut formed head members are pressed in an undercut groove on the underside of the supporting shoes, supporting bars or the like, the retaining rails formed from the hard compressible material are engaged in the groove in the upper side of these supporting rails, bars or the like, as taught for example in the German patent document-open application DE-AS No. 27 19 857.
In order to make grids for floor mats or foot scrapers with a minimum height and area, individual components can be joined into a single structure by a press fastner system utilizing as is set forth in German patent application P No. 33 17 410.5 and European patent application No. 84 10 5223.6, the undercutting of the upper and lower sides of the supporting channel, supporting bar, or the like to provide both on the one hand supporting channels serving as receptacles for holding the flexible insertable strips, rails or the like, and on the other hand grooves next to each other of approximately the same height for engagement of the holding elements, and furthermore to provide three undercut grooves over the width of the supporting channel or the like in an arrangement symmetrical with respect to its longitudinal axis.
In another case on the underside of the supporting channel, bar or the like, two undercut longitudinal grooves are positioned edgewise or engage holding elements, while on the upper side of the supporting channel an undercut longitudinal groove symmetric with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rail is provided as a receptacle for a retaining rail formed for holding the flexible insertable strip, rail or the like.
There is another possible alternative in which on the underside of the supporting channel, supporting bar, or the like only one undercut longitudinal groove symmtric with respect to its long axis is provided to engage the holding elements, while on the upper side of the supporting channel to undercut longitudinal grooves are found which provide a receptacle for a retaining rail formed to hold the flexible insertable strip, rail or the like which is to be mounted therein.
The structure of the components for the construction of grids for making floor mats or foot scrapers, the supporting channels, supporting bars or the like, the holding elements which bind the supporting channels together with clearance from each other, and also the flexible insertable strips, rails, or the like, for example comprising felt, brush material, rubber, or having a textile top portion, and also the retaining rail structured to receive the insertable strip or rail and to be locked into the supporting channel or the like, have in practice a particular importance, in that their manufacture from plastic, and also metal, is possible in such a way, that allows assembly of these individual components in an easy way, that allows reliable and problem easy construction mounting even in congested workplaces.
Although the previously disclosed structures for the grid for making floor mats or foot scrapers already provides mounting conditions which allow a large size according to each of the previously mentioned prior art retainers set forth, practical experience shows that particularly the method or order of insertion of the flexible insertable strips, rails, or the like in the retaining rails, constructed of a compressible hard material, used to lock them into the supporting channels, bars, or the like can cause difficulty, because a certain force is required, which cannot always be applied manually especially when the insertable strip and the retaining rails serving to hold it have a comparatively large length.